Inside Laurel and Hardy

Jerry Carroll

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, August 26, 1997

If you're a film buff, Peter Bogdanovich's recent "Who the Devil Made It" is a pretty good read. One of his best interviews was with Leo McCarey, a director I never heard of either. But what a giant. He put Laurel and Hardy together -- not Hal Roach, as is commonly thought -- and gave Cary Grant the model for Cary Grant. He also directed the first movie pie fight, a career highlight in itself. Laurel was paid twice as much as Hardy, said McCarey.

"Laurel was one of those rare comics intelligent enough to invent his own gags. He was remarkably talented. Hardy wasn't. That was the key to the Laurel-Hardy association."

Winsome Joan Chatfield-Taylor's new coffee-table book on the
San Francisco Opera
is a must if you're a fan of the local aggregation. It's 50 bucks, though, which seems a bit steep. I was taken aback by the reproduction of the program for the Opera's first season at Stanford. It said part of the proceeds went for the Enlargement of Organ. It brought to mind those tasteful penile enhancement ads in the

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. The organ concerned was in Memorial Chapel, however.
Jerry Matters
writes: "It would be nice if the renovated
Opera House
offered to its foyer-bar guests the civilized amenity as offered in London theaters." He's talking about prepaid drinks waiting at intermission. "Of course, when the house opened with 'Tosca' in 1932, it was during Prohibition. Prohibition is now over."
Think radio was better before all that recent turmoil? Me, too. More than 2,100 radio stations worth $15 billion have changed hands this year, several in the Bay Area. The big corporations that gobbled up smaller fry came in with whiz-bang marketing experts. Far as I can see, the result is a handful of the same songs played ad nauseam.

Alex Bennett
's act was getting a tad tired, but
Darian O'Toole
was coming on strong. Both are gone, along with a raft of other talented folk sacrificed on the altar of demo graphic theory. Don't believe 'em when they say bigger is better. It just means less variety, the spice of life.
Catching up: Did you notice that the Little Man couldn't make up his mind at first about "Capitol Steps," the revue at
Theatre on the Square
that ends this weekend? He slept in his seat July 18, stared straight ahead a week after, then resumed his slumbers. Maybe he had a bad dream. While I'm at it, why does he go to all these shows alone? Is there no Little Woman?
San Francisco Focus magazine gets a redesign and becomes San Francisco Magazine next issue. The last monthly with that name went down in a sea of red ink nine years ago. That was after 26 years of more or less steady publication. Helping hasten the end were city magazines called SF and Frisko and . . . San Francisco Focus.
Here's your chance to get ahead of the curve. Models on runways and in high-
fashion
magazines will sport heavy bangs this fall. Also more layering.

"Richer hair color, including honey blonds and warm browns, will take the lead," says big-shot hairstylist Gordon Nelson. He says the look will reach the streets next year. You read it here first.

Dollar dogs and 80-cent beers Sunday at the CW Saloon on Folsom Street. New Wave music with disc jockeys Shindog and Skip. New Wave music was new in the late '70s and early '80s, you may recall. Will it ever be called Old Wave music? Probably not. The market is steady for these sounds: Shindog and Skip have spun the platters at 82 of these fests over the past five years.

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